Broward School Board to discuss whether hurricane makeup days are needed
Sun Sentinel | By Scott Travis | October 14, 2024
Hurricanes Helene and Milton could end up upending the school calendar for Broward students.
The school district missed one day for Helene and two for Milton, and State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz sent districts a memo saying the state Department of Education does not expect to waive any of the required instructional hours for students.
For Broward students, this means the fall semester, which was supposed to end before winter break, could be stretched out to January. Other options that would likely be unpopular could be shortening the weeklong Thanksgiving break and two-week winter break.
The School Board is expected to discuss options with Superintendent Howard Hepburn at a meeting Tuesday.
“Hepburn will provide an update to the Board and community on the impact this may have on our school calendar during his upcoming superintendent update on Tuesday,” district Communications Chief John Sullivan wrote in an email to School Board members. “Please be aware that this may require Board action in a future board meeting.”
The two other South Florida districts don’t expect to make up any missed days. A Miami-Dade schools spokesman said he believes that the district has enough time built into its current calendar, while Palm Beach County schools sent a letter saying the days wouldn’t need to be made up.
Broward school officials say they have enough instructional time built into the full-year calendar to meet the instructional requirements, which are 900 hours for students in grades 4 to 12, and 720 for earlier grades. But district officials say those the two semesters need to be close to the same length, rather than using the spring semester to make up for missed days in the fall.
Broward has a lot more days off for students in the fall semester, with Labor Day, two October holidays, Election Day, Veterans Day and a weeklong Thanksgiving break.
The district used to make up for this by extending the fall semester into January, but School Board members decided in January they’d prefer the first semester to end in December before winter break. To achieve this, the School Board started the school year a week earlier and cut out two half-days.
But the calendar has no hurricane makeup days included. If the district stretched the second semester into January, students probably wouldn’t have to make up any days, because there would be enough built-in instructional time in the spring semester to still meet the state’s requirements, officials said.
Palm Beach and Miami-Dade may not face the same challenges. Although Palm Beach County students have missed four days due to hurricanes — one for Helene and three for Milton — the school day for high schools is 20 minutes longer than Broward. High school hours are the ones Broward has the toughest time meeting due to breaks in the school days and shorter days for exams.
Palm Beach County schools are also open on Veterans Day, unlike in Broward.
Miami-Dade has built in a longer first semester that stretches into mid-January and didn’t miss any days due to Helene, only Milton.
“As of now, Miami-Dade County Public Schools are on track to meet the requisite number of instructional hours. Therefore, there is no requirement for make-up days at this time,” Miami-Dade schools spokesman Elmo Lugo said. “The Florida Department of Education may also issue additional guidance to all school districts in the state on how to address the recent hurricane closures.”
